Advent

So, I'm reading the Christmas story... It’s in the Bible… I know, I know,  I'm crazy like that, It's a good book and I find myself reading it all the time.

Anyway, I'm reading the Christmas story and it occurs to me that one of the things that God must be trying to teach us through that story is that whenever He moves, the cosmos shakes.   That He cannot do anything without it causing some sort of seismic shift in the material world.

So, if we want to know what God is about to do, the signs are all around us... we just need to be able to see and read them.   Why couldn't Herod and Jerusalem see the star that the Magi were following in Matthew's Gospel chapter 2?   Why did Herod send the magi on ahead and wait for them to return with news of where the baby lay?

How could the night sky light up with angels and thunder with the sound of their singing and nobody else  in Bethlehem notices?   Just a bunch of shepherds...

Think about it.   What if I'm right?   What if  the signs of what God is about to do are all around us... but like Herod we just can't see them...

…just sayin’

Dangerous Prayers 04

Lord Jesus, grant to me a deeper repentance,

a horror of sin,

a dread of its approach.

Help me chastely to flee it

and jealously to resolve

that my heart shall be

Yours alone.

Give me a deeper trust,

that I may lose myself to find myself in You,

the ground of my rest, the spring of my being.

Give me a deeper knowledge of You

as Saviour, Master, Lord, And King.

Give me deeper power in private prayer,

Give me more sweetness in Your Word,

Give me more steadfast grip on its truth.

Give me deeper holiness in speech, thought, action, and

let me not seek moral virtue apart from You.

Plough deep in me, great Lord, heavenly husbandman,

that my being may be a tilled field,

the roots of grace spreading far and wide,

until You alone are seen in me,

Your beauty golden like summer harvest, Y

our fruitfulness as autumn plenty.

I have no master but You,

no law but Your will,

no delight but Yourself,

no wealth but that You give,

no good but that You bless,

no peace but that You bestow.

I am nothing but that You make me.

I have nothing but that which I receive from You.

I can be nothing good apart from what You make me

Quarry me deep, dear Lord, and then fill me to overflowing with living water.

Prayer modified from The Valley Of Vision: A Collection Of Puritan Prayers  by Arthur G. Bennett  

Something Old... Something New...

Something new and something old…

When I was new in town I walked into a restaurant and ordered a dessert.  I was so taken by it I ordered every time I went… which in the early days was often.  In fact, it was so often they stopped asking me what I wanted and just brought it out. 

Then they changed the menu…

Change…

⁸ Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever. Hebrews 13:8 (ESV)

Could you imagine??!  The same!  Yesterday, today and forever!!??

Most of us would go absolutely bonkers.  We want new!  We crave NEW!  We’ve got to have new on a regular basis.  That’s why restaurants change up their menus so much.

…that’s why my favorite dessert is no longer on the menu! 

Maybe it’s just my aversion to change but have you ever noticed how things that are "new and improved" almost never are...?

Seriously, when was the last time you tried that new soap, new cookie, new pan-cake mix and went, "Whoa!   this really is new...   AND it's better than ever!"   I don't mean trying a different product I mean the same product with the "new and improved" label.

Maybe it's just me, but I've found that if it's something you put in your mouth (food) it either tastes exactly the same... or worse... if it's a piece of technology it only lasts half as long, does half the work and no longer carries the best features of the original product.

Maybe I'm just getting old and can't stomach change like you young-uns... maybe cars are better, food yummier, clothes more durable, brights brighter and whites whiter than they have ever been.

Maybe…

I’m glad there’s one constant… One I can rely on…

…and He don’t… won’t change.

…just sayin’